The journey to the cloud is an exciting one but it's not exactly the safest.

If anything, that's an eye-opening reality that I learned from talks given in last week's Trend Micro 2012 Partner Day event held at the Makati Shangrila.

Doing business transactions, connecting with people who matter to us and storing content can now be done easier via the internet, social networking sites and the cloud. These days, a lot of things can definitely be accomplished with just a few clicks on a trackpad or swipes on a screen even. But the problem is, such high level of convenience can make us complacent by giving us a false sense of security.

Threats Are Out There!

Friends, did you know that simply by connecting to a WiFi network, going online, opening your email, uploading files or using Facebook, you can expose yourself to a lot of threats that can wreak havoc to your otherwise quiet life? Armed with the most advanced social engineering and hacking tools and tactics, scheming spammers and scammers prowl the internet looking for accounts, identities and data they can steal or high-jack for their own benefit. One wrong move and you can bid your accounts goodbye.

"With or without Facebook, unenlightened users will make a mistake and divulge private information no matter what social network you drop them in to," shared Jamz Yaneza, Trend Micro's Threat Research Manager.

Most of the threats in social networking sites come in the form of spam, which use links to phishing pages and fake sites that serve as malware hosts or site redirectors, and fake survey scams using newsworthy events and tempting offers such as premiere movie tickets to trick users into clicking links to survey pages. Victims of which end up with stolen personal data or, worse, thinner wallet.

Beware of Malicious Apps!

Apparently, even using your smartphone can expose you to hideous threats!

"If current trends hold, we may be able to see more than 120,000 malicious Android apps
by the end of 2012," said Menard Oseña, Trend Micro Solutions Product Manager.

Perhaps the most scary and destructive malicious apps are the Droid Dreamlight Variants mostly found in China-based third-party app stores (though some variants also plagued the Android Market). These nefarious applications come in the guise of battery-monitoring, tasklisting, installed app-identifying tools, among others and steals all sorts of personal information that are then sent to a remote URL. Likewise, some rogue DDV apps secretly send messages to affected users' contacts and checks if infected devices have been rooted and if so, installs and uninstalls other malicious packages, exposing the user to even more threats.

You Need Protection!

I know. It's totally scary. But the good thing is you can always get THIS to protect yourself, your business and your loved ones from all the harmful elements online: The recently launched Trend Micro Titanium Package, which promises to "protect every aspect of digital life." --

I'll be receiving my package next week and I'll definitely install all three on my notebooks and PCs. Remember: The threats are out there! And we must everything we can to protect ourselves. Better to be safe than sorry, or so the adage goes. Anyway, if you're interested, you can order your Trend Micro Titanium package from MSI-ECS. Kindly ring them for pricing details at (02) 6883181.